Wow...haven't been in here for a while...
...is this guy for real?
Give yourself some kind of 'regular' education and go learn something about Cumulonimbus cloud formations...
MASSIVELY strong winds in the developmental stage of a thunderstorm...
...both up and down drafts only metres apart can simply (literally) rip the wings off.
Tough to see (visually) at night...doppler radar will detect both heavy rain and strong winds, but given some of these monsters can rise as high as 75,000 ft and be hundreds of miles wide, sometimes it's just a case of ploughing on through and hoping for the best, or turning around...
...I'm sure you don't need to be told how unpopular turning around is...
Oh, and fwiw, planes get hit by lightning all the time...no big deal.